New Media / ACTLab Pedagogy

Course Names:

Weird Science
Death
Trans
Performance
Blackbox
Postmodern Gothic
Soundscapes
When Cultures Collide

Course Components:

Projects:

            Project 1:  Learn how to make a project

            Project 2:  Go for more

            Project 3:  Go for it all

Class Activities:

Ice Breakers:  Ice Breakers are small mostly physical activities we have students perform, these activities include, but are not limited to:

Mirroring, Hand Reflex, Ball Bounce, Team Acting, Body Contact, sock puppets, masks

Reading Discussion:  Here we review the assigned reading and then begin discussion of what everyone thought of the reading and ideas that it to mind.

Demonstrations and Jamming:  This activity can be planned or ad-hoc depending on the situation, general encouragement of students to bring fourth new and exciting discoveries throughout the semester in addition to traditional show and tell of relevant items to the course/readings followed by a “jamming” session on how one could use this information for projects.

Project Presentations:  Project Presentations usually span at least one class period if not longer, the pacing is usually best left loose, meaning people should not feel rushed through their presentation, however it should also be noted when students are ill prepared and might just be rambling.

Guest Lecturers:  By Guest Lecturers we do not mean special podium guest lectures who stand in front of the class and give a power point presentation.  Guest lectures in the ACTLab range from random past ACTLabby visits, Ad hoc vistors who came with students, planned participation from special guests to full blown planned performances by artists. 

Environment:
           
Facilitate:  In the ACTLab a professors role is not so much as to lecture, but to facilitate an environment where students feel comfortable leading a discussion (not wording this right)
           
Open Enviroment:  The ideal physical environment for which ACTLab courses take place is in a space in which no one person is emphasized as the leader.  Examples of such efforts are level seating and circular tables.

Left Loose:  Class time within the ACTLab is left loose.  While time management is important, a certain amount of flexibility must be implemented in order to create an environment where the participants do not feel preasured.

Positive Re-Enforcement-  Positive re enforcement is something that the ACTLab actively encourages, the mentality to bring fourth helpful criticism of projects and ideas helps students, but under graduate and graduate get a foundation of confidence to take risks in their work that may otherwise be discouraged. 

Readings/Theory:

Theory:  The theory chosen for ACTLab courses are challenging to both Graduate and Undergradaute courses, however the way in which we instruct our students to read them is where usiblity of the theory comes into play.  We encourage students who have a hard time reading deep theory and dense text to look at it as more of poetry and to focus more on what reading the text makes them think of rather then what they think it should mean. 

Food for thought:  By using theory as practical text for ACTLab courses, students are introduced to high concepts, while also being encouraged to take that text and use it.  This also is what makes the class discussions flow.